Cryptic
by N'yrthghar
Summary: Judy has had enough of Nick's pranks, and decides to get even with a scare. But the location she chooses has other ideas.


Nick loved to pull pranks; it was one of his things. But Judy, after two and a half years of knowing the fox and being the subject of more pranks than the entire rest of the ZPD, had grown tired of them.

Nick was also easy to scare, despite his attempts to not be. Judy, however, wasn't. This was one advantage over the fox she had seldom had a chance to exploit, even after they started dating a few months ago.

But today, that was going to change.

When Nick was in the Zootopia Police Academy, Judy had been given a small case to investigate a breaking-and-entering at an old estate in the woods beyond Zootopia. She, and her temporary partner Fangmeyer (whose partner was out sick at the time), were dispatched to investigate despite the distance, and found an old, three-story mansion at the address given. Tucked away at the edge of city limits and entirely hidden from view, only accessible from dirt roads that were beginning to be covered by foliage, it was a great setup for a horror prank. Granted, the building was clearly old, with Victorian-era styling and an overgrown lawn, with small pieces of the roof having collapsed within the building, but it all added to the atmosphere. The breaking-and-entering wound up being nothing but the wind, but they did have trouble finding who had made the call. In the end, it was assumed to be someone on a neighboring property that stopped by or taken the wrong road.

When Chief Bogo had forced Nick and Judy to take some vacation time, she proposed a little trip out of the city to Nick. No camping or anything more than a day long, but she dropped word of an old building that she had seen while Nick was in the ZPA, and the fox's ears rose in interest. Judy hadn't known, but Nick was something of an urban exploration enthusiast – in his spare time as a hustler, he would venture into abandoned buildings, explore, and take a memento from the old buildings the city had left behind. Offices, houses, motels, casinos – nothing was off-limits to the fox. He even had an old backpack he used for exploration – a single-strap green and black thing where he kept a first-aid kit, a basic gas mask, water, food, a flashlight, and other small items he had called "essential for any true urban explorer". Needless to say, it didn't take much convincing to drag the fox out to the mansion.

Judy and Fangmeyer had been planning for weeks to scare Nick; the wolf would dress as a ghost and, after coming in the building the day before, would set up a series of wires and mirrors, speakers, and other tricks with which he and Judy would scare Nick. It had been settled a month ago that, when Bogo finally forced the two to take some time off, Fangmeyer would take off the two days Judy told him to in order to pull off the prank.

And so it was that she stared up at the building as Nick approached the front doors. The weather itself seemed to be in on the joke, with overcast skies promising rainfall and rumbling thunder off in the distance. Despite it being midday, one could easily mistake it for the evening from how well the clouds blocked the sun. Judy scanned the top windows, looking around for a familiar face in one of the murky windows. Finally, barely, she could make out movement in one of someone in one of the windows – blurry and distorted, but nonetheless wolf-like. With a grin, she reached out and gave a thumbs-up to Fangmeyer, before turning away and padding after Nick, adjusting her own backpack as she caught up to him. She had gotten the same items as Nick in her own pack – though that was likely because Nick himself packed it for her. The fox had seemed to excited, Judy almost felt guilty about doing this to him.

Almost.

The inside of the building was, to her surprise, almost the same as when she had been there last. The front doors opened into a small mud room, before opening into a large hallway. The center of it held a large staircase that led to the wall before splitting into two sets of stairs that led to the second floor, with a set of stairs in the opposite design leading to the third floor. To the left was a hallway with a plethora of rooms, each one currently blocked off by its closed door, and to the right was what could have only been a large living room.

"This place is amazing," Nick breathed. "If I had only known about this before..."

"Sorry I didn't tell you before," Judy said, walking and and bumping into him with her hip. The fox glanced down at her, a look of wonder still in his eyes from the scale of the building. "I didn't remember it until the last horror movie we saw. If I had known you liked to explored abandoned places, I probably could've told you sooner."

"But you didn't then, and do now," Nick said, looking around the room again. "So you promise to tell me about any other places like this you find?"

"Promise," Judy said, grinning as she joined Nick in looking around. The last time she had been here, it had been dark, and neither she nor Fangmeyer were entirely comfortable with entering the building after sunset. So instead they patrolled around the building, peering into windows and doorways without ever entering, before retreating to the safety of their cruiser. Judy had to admit, there was a haunting beauty to the place – despite the dust, dirt and grime, it held a particularly elegant atmosphere. The subtle curves and floral patterns on the railing and supports, coupled with the distinctly era-specific furniture that still rested in the mansion, gave it an almost otherworldly feel.

"Well, where should we go first?" Judy asked. Nick was silent a moment longer, and she could hear him shuffling around as he took a few steps towards the stairs.

"I think, let's start with this hallway," he finally said. Judy turned and followed after Nick as he began to walk into the hallway with closed doors, stopping beside him as he reached the nearest one. He pushed the door open, waving his paw at the dust that flew up as they uncovered a bedroom. A bed, roughly sized for a bear, was in one corner with an old, rusting metal frame and tossed-about covers. A desk sat ahead of the doorway, and in the third corner was a dresser. Blank papers, quills, and an ink bottle decorated the floor, all covered in a layer of dust and old fur. Nick took a few steps into the room, each step causing a wave of dust to rise into the air. Judy followed after Nick once again, looking around, until she gave an unexpected sneeze. This made Nick spin around, and in his sudden movement, even more dust filled the air, making the duo cough as they pushed to the exit. Nick carefully shut the door behind them, coughing and waving at the air.

"Carrots," cough cough. "Warn me next time, will ya?" More coughing.

"Yeah, I will," Judy coughed out. Then, when she had caught her breath: "This place could really use a good dusting."

"Most of these places do." Nick nodded and brushed off his clothes – an army green weatherproof jacket that hid a faded 'Black Mammoth' t-shirt, and cargo pants. Nick walked over to check the next room, Judy following after. It was, again, a bedroom, very similar to the previous one. Judy waited outside the door this time, instead following after Nick as he went from room to room, but never entering. At one point, she thought she could hear something on one of the upper floors on the opposite side of the home – something that sounded a lot like distant footsteps.

Judy gave a small smirk, knowing that Nick couldn't have heard it from where he was. He still had no idea that this was all going to be a prank, and that was what she was counting on.

When they had finally finished with the hallway, they agreed to journey upstairs, saving the living room and whatever lay beyond for last. The two walked upstairs and paused to look around again, taking in the new environment. The stairs led into a hallway that looped in on itself, a deep red carpet running along the center. Large windows were looking over the front of the building and into the trees outside but, due to the lack of cleaning and years of abandonment, the windows were difficult to look out of. Judy could barely even see their old SUV in the front of the building.

As she had come to expect, there was even more dust to be found, and bedrooms on this floor. These they simply glanced into and moved past, but they gave pause when they came to a study. A desk and slick pleather chair sat with its back to a wall with two floor-to-ceiling windows on either side overlooking the back of the estate, with the large portrait of a well-dressed ox staring down at them from its perch between the windows. On both walls there was bookshelves which, to Nick's displeasure, were barren of books, instead occupied by more dust, some spiderwebs, and random pieces of wood and bits of the ceiling. Thankfully, the building had been holding up so far, but when Nick had Judy look up to see that the ceiling was sagging and had splotches of black, he made her get her gas mask on, while he did the same.

It was definitely a strange experience, wearing the mask, but she figured it was better than being poisoned by mold, or worse. It was almost as strange, she felt, as the eery sensation of the painting glaring at them. Judy could feel her skin crawl the longer she was under its scrutinizing gaze, something that even Chief Bogo had been unable to do since her early days as an officer. She was thankful when she and Nick left the room.

They continued on, idly and quietly talking about Nick's past experiences in abandoned buildings. Judy, eventually, brought up the question of paranormal experiences – something Nick scoffed at. He listed off things that had fooled other urban explorers into thinking as paranormal, but he claimed had rational explanations. Footsteps could be debris, gas could make shifting and ghost-like forms, a sense of unease was the mind overreacting to the eery atmosphere. He gave a pause, however, when a creaking sounded above them, accompanied by the falling of dust – to which Nick laughed softly. "This place is old, I bet the third floor is barely holding together," he said.

Judy nodded in agreement, but internally hoped that Fangmeyer would start the 'paranormal activity' soon.

The remainder of the second floor held little of interest – a study room, a storage room, and a set of bathrooms for the floor's long-gone occupants. The fox and bunny moved quickly along to the top floor, but Judy did take pause as she looked at the lower staircase, spotting something that surprised her – there were only two sets of footprints. _Fangmeyer must've come in through the back door,_ she reasoned. _I just hope that he starts with the scares-_

Judy and Nick both jumped as there was the sound of slamming doors downstairs, followed after by faint footsteps.

 _Soon,_ Judy mentally finished, letting out the breath she'd held in. She looked to Nick, who was looking down to the bottom floor. "That was sudden," she commented.

Nick nodded, turning to the third floor to look around. "Must've been the wind, or something falling. With this place being as old as it is, I bet it does this all the time." Under her mask, Judy grinned at Nick's clear skepticism – their plan was finally going to be put into action. She silently followed Nick as he walked along the top floor, though the bunny would be lying if she said she wasn't a _little_ disappointed. It seemed more like a large family room, with doors on either side that led to the 'towers'. One of these doors refused to budge when Nick pushed against it and, with a sigh of disappointment, he turned to the other door. Judy followed him as he went, quietly observing the room. A large plush carpet sat underneath a long sofa, two recliners, a lengthy coffee table, and an entertainment center with space for books or knick-knacks on either side. It was, in a way, homely.

The sudden sound of thunder crashing made the rabbit jump again – it was incredibly loud and sudden, right over the house, and followed almost immediately with the faint patter of rain. In the far corner of the room, she could see water beginning to drip to the floor through unseen cracks. Judy backed towards the tower door where Nick had gone, unintentionally bumping into him as the fox backed into her. Both spun around and, before Judy could speak, Nick leaned down and put a finger to the front of his mask, signaling for her to be quiet. "Judy, we should go," he whispered.

"What? Why?" Judy whispered back. Nick looked over his shoulder to the doorway, before looking back to her.

"Someone else is here. We should go."

"Let me see," Judy said. She tried to go to the door, but Nick pushed back against her. Before he could argue more, Judy said "Just a peek," and pushed his paw off of her. As silently as she could, she crept up to the doorway and pushed the door in just a crack.

Beyond was a storeroom, with open crates and boxes covering one corner, and an open doorway that led into the small tower lay just out of view. Judy pushed the door open slighlty more, poking her head into the room enough to see into the tower. She wasn't sure what she had expected to see, but the tall, wolf-like figure standing in front of a large window wasn't it. The room was, for the most part, too dark to see, and the figure blended in with the shadow almost seamlessly, almost as it _was_ a shadow.

She was surprised, to say the least. Fangmeyer must've gone all-out for this joke, even finding a way to make the air in the room freezing cold, enough to where Judy could see her breath, and make the fur on the back of her neck stand up in unease.

Judy carefully crept back to Nick, nodding in agreement that they should now leave. The two silently crept down the stairs, taking the set opposite what they had used to go up in order to descend. Both winced and froze as Nick took a step that made a loud creaking noise. Judy let her ears raise up, trying to pick out any sound from the pitter-patter of rain. It took a moment, but she heard it: a slow, high-pitched squeaking as the door upstairs was pushed open, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps.

With a single glance, Nick and Judy communicated a silent command – _Get out_.

With less care for silence than before, the two hastily made their way down the first floor. Judy gave a brief pause as they reached the bottom, surprised again to see the front doors closed. She doubted it was the wind that did it, too, as they were heavy and solid wood. Maybe Fangmeyer had used fishing lure or something similar to pull it closed from upstairs?

Regardless, she ran up to Nick as he tugged on the doors, both letting out rattles as the locks protested. With a single hard push, the doors rattled and fell silent, Nick throwing up his paws in swift defeat. "Great," he hissed. Judy looked up at the doors, trying to spot some way to open them, before something caught her eye – well, multiple somethings, in the form of black, scorched claw marks carving their way down the door. Both doors bore them, at odd angles and all in sets of three lines. Rather than the pale wood of normal scratches, these were charred and black – as if the claws that did it were ablaze at the time.

Judy was about to speak when Nick turned around. With a surprised gasp, he grabbed Judy and pushed her to one side, before jumping to the opposite side. The wolf-like figure had, in their time spent at the door, come up behind them and pounced at the two. It dropped to all fours, not unlike a savage animal, before turning to snarl at Nick. The fox, breathing quickly, backed up. Judy shifted slighly, looking over at Nick, grinning at the evident panic in his eyes – and, feeling that that was sufficient payback, stood up and brushed herself off.

"Alright, Fangmeyer, you can stop now." She laughed. The wolf before her paused its slow advance towards Nick. Nick glanced at Judy again, but the rabbit kept her grin on under the mask, walking over to the wolf to pat its back, saying "Fang, we got him."

With a snarl, the wolf spun on Judy, knocking her to the ground. And that was when she realized, this was most definitely _not_ Fangmeyer.

Judy hadn't realized it before, likely due to the darkness of the bottom floor and lack of sunlight, but this wolf was not black because of clothing – its fur was black, and not a natural black. This was almost darker than black, as was the entire figure, with the only visible coloration being piercing, dark red eyes that glared at her from its shadowy body.

The creature snarled at Judy again, giving a low and threatening growl as it slowly moved towards her. It hissed as it was struck by something – an ink bottle that Nick had taken from one of the bedrooms. It again snarled and spun to face Nick, but the fox was already spinning past it, lifting Judy to her feet as he took off towards the last unexplored portion of the mansion.

They ran past the rooms without taking them in – another large family room, then a dining hall, which led them around and into a kitchen, which finally led into a storage room and, just beyond that, a library. Judy spun around the moment she entered the library, grabbing one of the doors and pushing it closed as Nick did the same to the other. As soon as the doors were shut, the turned and grabbed the nearest set of furniture they could – an old desk – and began shoving it against the door. "Push harder!" Nick hissed, the hints of panic clear in his voice.

There was a heavy thud against the doors, just as the desk was firmly pressed against it. Judy continued to push against the desk as Nick broke away, hastily looking over the room. "Exit, exit, exit," he muttered.

"What about the windows?" Judy suggested, glancing at the door as another heavy thud sounded from the other side.

"Last resort, the broken glass can cut us up," Nick argued. With an 'Ah!' of hope, he rushed to an area of the room Judy couldn't see. She heard him opening a door, starting a victory noise, before a loud crash sounded, and Nick came stumbling back into view. "Of course," he said, trying to cough despite his gas mask. He looked around the room again, this time looking up. Judy followed his gaze, spotting a hole in the ceiling that led into a room she and Nick hadn't gone into, as the door was locked. "If I can get up there, I'll unlock the door. We can probably get out on a balcony and drop down."

"Wait, why do you go up? I'm the agile one," Judy argued.

"But can you pick a lock?" Nick asked.

"I can kick down a door," Judy said.

"And if that thing hears?" Nick asked, wincing as the door was pounded against again.

"Oh, sweet cheese and – just climb, then! I'm not exactly a barricade!" Judy snapped. She could feel herself beginning to panic – if this thing wasn't Fangmeyer, where was the wolf? And on that subject, what _was_ this thing? The air around it had been cold but, when Judy had almost touched it, it became almost uncomfortably warm. On top of that, it -

Her thoughts were interrupted by another thud on the door, this one almost knocking her over. The bunny looked at Nick desperately as he scaled the tall bookshelves like a ladder, paws pushing aside old books and loose pages as he climbed. He brushed past something, though, that caught her eye – a lone book, standing perfectly upright, despite having no supports. She stared at it until another thud hit the door behind her, tossing her to the floor. She recovered quickly and threw herself against the desk in time for another thud, keeping the doors closed. "Nick, that book next to you! Pull it!" She shouted.

"What? Why?" he called back. Judy was unable to give a response other than a grunt as the doors were hit again, this time letting out a crack as something splintered. Nick, though, did as she said and pulled on the book. A low rumble sounded from the other side of the room, before Nick let out an "Ah!" of surprise. He began to drop down to the floor again, pushing a chair towards Judy, and pushing it under the desk. Without waiting, he grabbed her paw and began running to the opposite side of the room, Judy keeping pace with her.

"It did something?" Judy asked.

"It did something!" Nick confirmed, pointing to a new hole in the floor – a part of the hardwood had shifted into the wall, revealing steps that descended into darkness. The air emanating from it was cold and discouraging but, when the doors behind them let out another crack, she led the way into them. "Hold up, there should be a way to close this." Nick made her stop when they reached the bottom of the stairs, and in the pitch black she could hear him running his paws against the walls. In the meantime, she tugged off her backpack and reached inside, drawing out her flashlight, before flicking it on. She winced at the sudden brightness, before turning to shine the light on the wall just as Nick pushed on a small stone that jutted out. The rumbling sounded again, and when it stopped, Judy could feel the air no longer moving towards them. She turned and cast her light down the passage, frowning as she saw it lead to nothing but darkness.

"There's a room ahead," Nick said, pointing past her and turning on his own light.

"How do you know that?" Judy asked, looking up at him as she started walking forward.

"Foxes see better in the dark, Carrots. You knew this. That _also_ means that I can see past where you can in the dark." Nick followed behind her, occasionally looking behind them.

The path did indeed lead into a room, one that seemed almost like a mix between a wine cellar and a bar. Kegs of what smelled like alcohol of all kind – beer, whiskey, and even vodka – lined the walls on one side, and on the other was what could basically be called a bar, with stools set to one side of a makeshift counter, behind which was a series of old shot glasses and slightly larger cups, all of which hadn't been cleaned in some time.

"What is this place?" Judy wondered aloud, looking around as Nick brushed past her, looking behind the counter for something.

"This is an old speakeasy," he replied. "I remember finding a few in old buildings like these. Back in the Prohibition era, alcohol was illegal, so people made secret bars where they would sell whiskey, moonshine, and that stuff. They made them to be pretty secret" He let out a grunt, and Judy turned to see him tugging at a handle at the bottom of the floor. "These things, if I remember right, had a few hidden stashes for things like money, more liquor, or guns. And some had more than one entrance."

Nick gave a heavy groan as he lifted up the hatch he was tugging at, lifting it up to reveal an empty hole. "Dang," he muttered, lowering the hatch back down before looking around again. Judy picked up one of the shot glasses and brushed it off, tilting her head slightly at the ornate H that was emblazoned on one side. Nick picked up his flashlight from the floor and cast it around again, this time walking over to an empty part of a wall and running his paw over it. "Now I'm no expert but, if I were a guessing tod, I'd say this has an entrance to the cellar... Just... Like... This," the fox stepped back with a triumphant look in his eyes as the wall began to swing inwards, towards the bar, and reveal a dark cellar beyond. Wine racks and boxes of what Judy assuemed was once food lay beyond, as well as a sound that brought a grin to her muzzle under her mask – rain, hitting a wooden door.

Nick and Judy, side-by-side, rushed through the doorway and shone their light over the cellar walls, until they saw what they were looking for: a metal cover laying on the ground over the top of some stairs, with rainwater dripping through. They both pushed the cover up just enough to slip outside, before setting it back down and turning to look at where they had ended up – the back of the house, on the outside of the bedrooms, on the opposite side of the building from whatever it was that had chased them.

They didn't take time to celebrate just yet, though. Instead, they sprinted as fast as they could to their SUV, almost flying inside and slamming the doors. Not five minutes later, Nick was turning onto the nearest paved road, and going well over the speed limit to put as much distance between them and that house as he could.

Now, they let out sighs of relief, taking off their masks and tossing them in the back seat. Once Nick slowed down, he and Judy glanced at one another briefly, before laughing. Full-blown laughter, as if they had just heard a hilarious joke, ensued until the vehicle again fell silent. They had made a silent agreement to never, _ever_ do that again.

Judy took this time to take out her phone. She had a new voicemail, but had never felt her phone go off; regardless, she put the phone to her ear and listened.

 _"Hey Judy, it's Catherine. Fang's come down with something, so he can't do that prank you two have been planning. I know you and Nick will have a while off, though, so I'll make sure to have John call you when he's feeling better, alright? Take care, don't have too much fun."_

Judy sat back in her seat, and let out another small laugh. She shook her head, and shut her eyes, listening to the humming of the engine and pattering of rain on the windshield as she relaxed.

~ óÓÒò ~

 **So, yeah, this seems a bit random and probably a bit rushed... Sorry about that. It's a result of me writing for several straight hours and getting extremely tired, then not finding a way to write this any better. I'm sure I could find a way, but I've been wanting to do a paranormal-ish story for some time, and after an evening watching 'real' paranormal videos, I figured this'd be a fun thing to do. And in case anyone is wondering, the 'monster' in this story is based off of an old legend from (and I could be wrong on this) Germany. I don't entirely remember it off the top of my head, but it featured a black hound that clawed at the doors of a church and left scorched claw marks. And, if there's enough interest in this, I might make a series of paranormal-based one-shots. So, please review this and let me know what you thought.**


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